The Way Life Should Be

I have had an absolutely wonderful past couple of weeks. If life could roll along like this all the time, I would be one happy camper. Oh heck, I am one happy camper most of the time anyway but let me tell you, it has been great to just singing Showers of Blessings in the last couple of weeks instead of Praise You in This Storm. I am actually trying to work on a special for Praise You in This Storm. My problem is not signing it at all, it's singing it without crying and I refuse to stand in front of people and cry through a song. Cherilea and I had to sing at a funeral one time and it took everything in our power to keep from crying, but we did. We have definitely had some storms the last couple of years but God's hands over our heads made it feel like we were being sheltered from what could have been so much worse. This month we are celebrating the anniversary of Andrew going to work for Goodwill. He actually started the 6th of May but he was told he had the job in April. We are also celebrating the 2 year anniversary of Robert being spared when he totaled his car. That was within a week before Andrew got fired from Walmart. That week will never be forgotten but as I said, God took such good and loving care of us. We needed to go through all if it. Andrew's, we understand as God moved him out of a bad situation that Andrew was never going to have the courage to get out of himself. Robert and the car, we don't understand as much but I do believe it taught Robert he was definitely not invincible. We have so much to be thankful for, that is for sure.

 So, on April 12th, Sis and Richard came for a visit. Great day at my moms and a great evening at our house. We don't get together nearly often enough. And we didn't take any pictures! Grr.... During that week Robert found out he was going to have to run a new line from the well to the house, they had seen on the news where New York was running new pipe inside the old pipe. It was a brilliant idea and it worked, until they got to where the pipe was actually broke. All the way across the driveway, where digging entailed more rock that dirt. Garrett Birch volunteered to help dig the hole and today, Andrew is off and Robert gets off at noon, they hope to have new line ran by this evening, AND the drive filled back in. It is definitely taking more on the house than they imagined, but knowing everything is new, and they are using the newest stuff, like the PEX for the waterline, is going to prove invaluable down the road.


 Of course, April 15th came and with all the money moving we did last year, we ended up owing a sickening amount to the IRS. Funny thing was though, on April 21st, we received an inheritance check from one of Andrew's uncles. Did it really surprise me that it covered all the taxes we owed plus enough left over to get me and Andrew new tires, which we needed? No, not really, God is Good, All the Time.

 So, then there is everything that has been going on at work. Of course, we have several computers that were Windows XP that are going to need changed to Windows 7. On the 15th, I started working on the Weatherization building at Olney. I am actually trying to bring those guys into the 21st century and since several of them travel the state on a weekly basis, wanted to set up their toughbooks as their main office system too. We found them docks and 2 of them are now completely finished. I added one laptop that I updated from XP to 7 and installed two new computers for the actual office staff girls. I have the Director's computer yet to do. Hopefully that office will be 100% Windows7 by next Thursday.  An added bonus to the time spent in Olney-- I got to have lunch with my friend Patty, someone else I don't get to see nearly as much as I would like, but glad to have the chances when they come. We ate at the Roll With It Bakery, oh my goodness, what a place!  Great atmosphere and absolutely wonderful food that you just can't get everywhere. That in itself was a good day!

We are also getting a new accounting system for our office, that entailed me doing a lot of things I had never done before too. I am seriously thinking I want to take a Windows Server class, I understand the concepts fine, I just need to know some of these things without so much trial and error. Anyway, after some sessions with the IT guy I go to when I can't figure something out (happily, he couldn't find the problem easily either and we brought in yet another guy), everyone is ready to start setting up their parts of the new system.

The biggest win on the IT front this week though was figuring out how to download one of our volume licensed Office disc onto Cathy's tablet that had no USB port. I was able to share my d drive on our network, and load her tablet from my d drive. Yes, I would have been scary had I started playing with computers when I was about 6 because that totally gave me an adrenaline rush when I figured it out. It was a day I missed Brenda at work, she would have told me I should have been Penelope Garcia. Some of you real computer geeks are probably laughing at me but it was a big deal to me.

 On the LIHEAP front, we are getting ready for PIPP recertification. I was really disappointed that we are having to do it the same way as always. I had been on a committee that a year ago, we were told it would take a year for the programs to be written, we said great, we will plan on it; only to find out a few months ago it wasn't going to happen. I am still hopeful it will someday though. I got to help another PIPP coordinator this week learn how to do her mail merges, she is new and I am looking really forward to meeting her at the conference this summer. I really do like helping others understand the PIPP part of our program. It truly is a good program, it just takes a lot of daily work. Anyway, I have 1216 letters ready to go out Tuesday as well as all our staff coming in for a refresher on doing the recert itself.

I am going to leave you with pictures from our Easter dinner. My mom came down for lunch, you would think we would do that all the time, we just don't so I was really glad she came. We even made plans to come down for Mother's Day and have the guys cook steaks on the grill for us. Looking forward to that too! Anyway....